On the other hand...

J. had a different friend over the other day, and i was appalled! B. was sitting in a chair on the deck, looking around at the trees, as he often does. I overheard our neighbor's son saying, "He's so boring!" J. just laughed nervously. Then the little boy said, "Make him scream again!" I think he was talking about the happy shouts that B. tends to make when he's jumping around the house. J. was at a loss and just looked at me. I was so disappointed in this boy's attitude, but I tried to think to myself that he's nervous around B., and doesn't understand what's going on. So I did my best to explain autism in a few sentences, but I couldn't tell if it made much impression. I was so annoyed by the whole interaction. I don't know the boy's parents well, but I know the dad is always very kind toward the twins, and invited us to join a camping group he's in. I think I'll ask the dad to talk to his son about it.

Afterward I talked with J., and said there will always be some kids who don't know much about autism, and if he wants, I'll explain things to any of his friends. J. seemed much less concerned about it than I was. Looking back, I'm realizing that the rest of J's friends are amazingly accepting about the twins. Our next door neighbors have a daughter with developmental delays, so between our two houses there's a lot of happy shouting, partially-clad escape attempts, and toilet-training mayhem. To live on our street is to have at least some understanding of six year olds with special needs!

I think it was good to have a wake up call that there will be rude questions and clueless comments from kids J's age, and I need to think up some strategies to deal with them. To me the twins are so adorable, I can't imagine anyone saying anything mean about them, but it is going to happen.

Thanks for noticing

J., my oldest son, had a friend sleep over last night. His friend is an only child and is always surprised by the reality of our household. With the candor of a seven-year-old, he has suggested a few times that I clean up the house more often. He also reports the twins' escapades to me in a panick=y voice at frequent intervals. It's usually along the lines of "B. is naked!", "G. is on the kitchen counter!" or "B. is jumping on the IPad!". Actually those are all actual quotes from last night.

This morning, while B. and my husband were still sleeping, I took J, G and J's friend out to the kolache and donut shop. We got our treats and sat at a table to eat. After we'd been there a while, J's friend said, "Hey, Greg is doing really well!"

That warmed my heart so much. For one thing, J's friend is getting some perspective on the whole situation. And, he was right, G. was doing really well.

Potty Training Update

Well, apparently I am backing off on the potty training once again. Although we were focusing on G., it was B. who made some improvement. G. just became stressed, aggressive, and started saying, "Sleep? Sleep?" in the middle of the afternoon, hoping I'd put a pull-up on him and put him to bed.

I know that some day, G will use the bathroom. He can wait hours and hours, he can ask for what he needs and he can go when he decides he's ready. We just need to change the location of where he likes to go or actually, HE needs to change the location of where he likes to go.

On a related note, a Hoover SteamVac should be arriving at our house in 3 to 5 business days, and boy is it going to be busy!

Galveston

Since our first family beach trip last year, we've resolved to go down more often, especially in the off times. No one in our family likes a big crowd, but we all love the surf and an empty-as-possible beach. So, this past Saturday we packed up and headed back down to Galveston.

If you are used to New England beaches, it's a bit of an adjustment. To me it doesn't seem as clean, and there's no zoning, so the development on Galveston isn't exactly quaint or charming. On the other hand, you find a nice cross-section of the local poplulation on the beach, with a fun, multi-lingual, multi-cultural feel.

It was very grey and very windy. The boys loved the waves, which seemed a lot bigger than usual. Afterwards we went out to Mooyah Burger, which everybody liked or tolerated really well. When we go out and have such a normal family day, it's a really great feeling.